February 2018 Chestnut-bellied Seed Finch (Sporophila angolensis) | Brazil 2017 Volume 36 Issue I Photo by LSUMNS graduate student Marco Rego February 2018 Volume 36, Issue 1 Letter from the Director...

Museum of I am pleased to announce that legendary LSU ornithologist Natural Science Theodore “Ted” A. Parker, III (1953-1993) will be inducted into Director and the LSU College of Science Hall of Distinction at a ceremony on April 20th, 2018. Although I only knew Ted for a brief time, his Curators charisma, enthusiasm, and encyclopedic knowledge of were inspiring. Here I’ve posted an abridged version of the nomination letter that Gregg Gorton, Van Remsen, and I submitted. ______Robb T. Brumfield Director, Roy Paul Daniels Professor and Curator of Ted was already a legendary figure in ornithology and conservation before Genetic Resources his untimely death 25 years ago at age 40 on a cloud-enshrouded mountain in Ecuador while surveying habitats for establishing parks. The arc of his life and career Frederick H. Sheldon encompassed in breathtakingly rapid fashion a range of notable accomplishments. George H. Lowery, Jr., Professor and Curator of Genetic As a youngster, Ted was a birding prodigy with a nearly audiographic memory Resources whom some referred to as “the Mozart of ornithology,” and who broke the record for birds seen in one year in the United States while he was only 18 years old. He then Christopher C. Austin displayed field-ornithological genius by mastering the most challenging avifauna Curator of in the world--the 3500 of --within a few years of going Amphibians & Reptiles there. Parker joined the LSU family when he was a junior at the University of and received a phone call from LSU Museum of Natural Science Director Prosanta Chakrabarty George Lowery inviting him to accompany an LSU expedition to organized Curator of Fishes by Dr. John P. O’Neill. One year later, after Parker had spent nearly that entire year in Peru, Lowery wrote to him: “You made ornithological history.” He was referring Jacob A. Esselstyn Curator of to the new birds for Peru that Parker had discovered, his exploration of areas of the country not previously surveyed by any ornithologist, his tape-recording for the very first time hundreds of bird species’ voices, as well as his adding hundreds of J. V. Remsen John Stauffer McIlhenny bird specimens to the LSU Museum of Natural Science collection, many for the first Professor and time. Curator of Birds Once he got a taste for field Rebecca Saunders research in South America, Parker Curator of Anthropology spent nearly half the rest of his life there on dozens of expeditions and Sophie Warny collecting/recording forays, either AASP Associate Professor Curator of Palynology & with the LSU Museum, or as a funded Director of Education researcher for the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International, or as a professional tour guide—which allowed him to do his field work while also teaching and mentoring in- country residents and birders in the many countries in which he travelled.

...continued on page 31

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 1 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Expeditions to Central Sulawesi

by Mark Swanson

The rainforests of Sulawesi, a large island in province and neither had ever been surveyed for central , shroud many biological mysteries. mammals. For most mountains, simple questions such as “Which species are there?” and “How does species diversity Comprehensive sampling of specimens was a change with increasing elevation?” remain elusive. theme of this trip, and the number of anticipated projects Beyond that little is known about the ecology and is overwhelming. We prepared mammal specimens as natural history of each of those individual species. What traditional skin, skeleton, and fluid specimens so that are they eating? What are their reproductive strategies? we can examine their external and internal morphology. Which other organisms live on and inside them? While These preparations will helpLSUMNS graduate student the answers to these questions have serious implications Jon Nations study the evolution of climbing ability in for conservation and human health, we seek them out and will also help our collaborators understand how for the thrill of pure discovery. What is hiding in these the shapes of the nasal bones and gastrointestinal tracts forests? have evolved over time. We prepared microscope slides with blood for each so that they can be screened The National Science Foundation is supporting for blood parasites such as malaria and trypanosomes, a collaborative effort between multiple U.S. natural as well as dried blood on filter paper so that the genomes history museums and the Indonesian Institute of of those blood parasites can be sequenced. We collected Sciences to fill these knowledge gaps and transform our kidneys and lungs in order to look for the presence of understanding of Sulawesi rainforests through a series Leptospira bacteria and Pneumocystis fungi, respectively. of expeditions to 10 mountains. Scientists on each of Both of these microbes are common in those tissues and these expeditions work to document the birds, reptiles, potentially co-speciate with their hosts and members amphibians, mammals, fishes, and through of our research group are trying to understand if these preserving the for research collections. Not only microbes are co-evolving with their hosts, or affecting will these specimens tell us what is living in Sulawesi each other’s evolution. We saved rat testicles in formalin rainforests, but they will also help us understand the so that sperm morphology can be compared across diets, parasites, physiology, and evolution of each species. However, to me, the most exciting prep types species. This past year I represented LSU as a member are the ethanol preserved stomachs and subsamples of of the mammal team for expeditions to Mt. Katopasa the gastrointestinal tract. As funding allows, we will use in August and Mt. Torompupu in November. These these samples and DNA metabarcoding to find out the mountains are on opposite sides of the Central Sulawesi diversity of fruits, arthropods, and fungi each species is

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 2 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 eating as well as which microbes inhabit their guts. These data could tell us how microbial species are interacting with their host rats and shrews, possibly helping them derive nutritional value from their food. All of these projects are just a portion of what we are planning to do with the mammal specimens! Just as many preparation types and projects were carried out for the birds, herps, and arthropods. Additionally, the uses of this collection are only going to grow in the future as new questions and technologies emerge.

Highlights from Mt. Katopasa include a probable new species of . Members of this have soft grey fur and are thought to be frugivores, or fruit eaters. These are always my favorite animals to catch because of their large size and their unique diet. Interestingly, many of the specimens of this species we collected had in their teeth. Could these rats be eating moss despite its high fiber content and seemingly meager nutritional value? How are they sharing food resources with other known fruit eaters like Taeromys celebensis and facetus? Our investigations using stomach contents, stable isotopes, and gut microbe DNA sequences will help unravel these mysteries. Speaking of Taeromys, on our Mt. Torompupu expedition we also caught the first specimens of Taeromys hamatus in over 40 years.

Of the 4 species of Maxomys (spiny rats) known from Sulawesi, the only one that has not been caught in recent decades is Maxomys wattsi (Watt’s spiny rat). This has made inferring the relationship of this species to other members of the genus difficult because there are no fresh tissues available and the skins of the previously collected specimens were preserved with formaldehyde. Despite our general success at sequencing thousands of loci from old specimens, we have been unable to extract DNA from samples of this particular species! Fortunately we were able to collect several specimens of Maxomys wattsi from 1300 to 2000 meters on Mount Katopasa, doubling the number of specimens held in the world’s museums. Top: Taeromys hamatus from Mount Torompupu Middle: Maxomys wattsi from Mount Katopasa At our 1400-meter camp on Mount Katopasa, we Bottom: Haeromys minahassae from Mount Torompupu Title Photo: The forest of Mount Katopasa noticed the tails of some shrews are much longer than those we have collected at any other site on Sulawesi. We also noticed these shrews hop and move across the giant centipedes which are over a foot long, venomous, ground with lightening fast speed. Could this be a new and resemble nightmares incarnate. We occasionally species? Which predator could they be avoiding which found them feeding on dead rats in our traps. The requires them to move so fast? One possibility are the functional morphology of these long-tailed shrews

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 3 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 A long tailed, jumping shrew (Crocidura sp.) from Mount Katopasa.

as well as the possible to eat fruit in trees, but sleep on the ground. predator-prey dynamics of shrews and centipedes Despite three weeks of fieldwork on each of are fun topics for future these mountains and hundreds of mammal specimens study. representing dozens of species, our understanding of what lives on these mountains is still incomplete. Our Additional sampling was limited to a narrow swath up each mountain highlights from our and we had only a few days to sample the forests over Mount Torompupu 2000 meters. Despite this, team member Heru Handika expedition include a caught an exciting new species of rat on Mount Katopasa Crunomys celebensis as well as shrew-rats on Mount Torompupu. What else specimen caught in a could be hiding on these mountaintops? There is much pitfall trap. This species more to explore in the rainforests of Sulawesi and we is related to the dietary generalist species of Maxomys, look forward to continuing our work there in 2018 and but has evolved to specialize on worms and insects. beyond. Our pitfall traps also yielded specimens of Haeromys minahassae, which are rarely caught because of their small size and arboreal lifestyle. Haeromys mice have very long tails, a beautiful golden color, and are thought Mount Katopasa expedition research team

Top: Taeromys hamatus from Mount Torompupu Middle: Maxomys wattsi from Mount Katopasa Bottom: Haeromys minahassae from Mount Torompupu Title Photo: The forest of Mount Katopasa

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 4 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 In the South Pacific for some Ichthyology

by Prosanta Chakrabarty

In late September my PhD student Bill Ludt some notoriety recently as being “warm blooded” – and I traveled to the beautiful island of Tahiti to attend although some ichthyologists remain unconvinced. the 10th Indo Pacific Fish Conference. This meeting Sadly the specimen was too big to collect, and already takes place every four years and I have been anticipating had its gills removed. this trip since Bill and I went to the last meeting in Okinawa in 2013. I also knew that I couldn’t go all this We also traveled to the island of Moorea, which is way not to collect fishes. As with other conferences in about a 45min ferry ride from Tahiti. This island is home remote locales, and most field trips, it took a while to to, among other things, the Gump Research Station run get permits; we were lucky to get them a day before by UC Berkeley. The Gump helped us get our permits our planned travel began (even though Bill had been but we were unfortunately unable to collect on Moorea. working on them for more than a year). We had to settle for a lovely day snorkeling in crystal clear water surrounded by lush green mountains. Also joining us for part of the trip was LSU Biology professor and Museum Faculty Associate The conference started a few days after our Brant Faircloth. Brant and I submitted a proposal arrival, and it had about 500 attendees from around the to run a symposium on fish systematics focusing on world. Bill, Brant and I all spoke in the first session of ultraconserved elements. Our session ultimately became the first day after the plenaries. The Indo Pacific Fish part of a half day symposium called ‘Genes to Genomes: Conference is one of my favorites because I get to see Forging ahead in the study of marine evolution” which many of the European, Asian and African colleagues I we were happy to help organize. (Special thanks to Dr. Michelle Gaither who was the lead organizer and did all the heavy lifting.)

Soon after arriving we knew we were in paradise - an expensive French paradise. My French is passable, but most of the locals we met also spoke English as well as their local Polynesian dialects. I always wanted to come to Tahiti, not so much for its fishes or the beautiful teal-colored water, but because I loved the history of Captains Cook and Bligh in this region; and because of films like Marlon Brando’s Mutiny on the Bounty.

We went to the central fish market in Papeete around 5am the first few mornings to see what we could get. We made nice collections of local wrasses, goatfish, and unicornfish among other colorful, if odd-looking, species. At the local grocery store we did come across a Above: Bill Ludt presenting his talk large specimen of an Opah, or “Moonfish” which gained Title Photo: A panorama view of Moorea

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 5 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 often don’t see at conferences in North or South America. Bill and I started several important collaborations that hopefully will make for some fruitful publications over the next few months and years.

Although we didn’t hit the markets again during the meeting, I did get to collect some introduced guppies. The extent of my freshwater fieldwork was putting a bag down into a sewer off the main road in Tahiti and letting it fill with water then pulling the bag out of the water to find that 50 individual guppies had swam into the bag. Many of these specimens were mailed off to a colleague studying the introduction of guppies around the world. He was very happy to get individuals from this distant and isolated population. Above: A Unicornfish Bottom: L-R)( Prosanta Chakrabarty, Bill Ludt, and Brant Faircloth on Cook’s Bay I’ll spare you more details about the fish conference and swimming with humpbacks (as I did) and tiger sharks (as Bill did) and such, but rest assured (Chakrabarty & Faircloth et al. 2017). That publication this was no vacation (although it obviously wasn’t all created some great opportunities to work with other work either). The conference was a great opportunity scientists interested in using genomic fragments like to talk about our work, including one collaboration ultraconserved elements in their phylogenetic studies that recently yielded the cover of Systematic Biology of fishes.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 6 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Three Months at Harvard University

by Rafael Marcondes

Last Fall, I had the absolute privilege of spending to work on that same species. We decided to team three months as a visiting student at the Harvard up and Gustavo invited me to come to Harvard to do University Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) the genomic labwork, taking advantage of Harvard’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was an unforgettable superior research infrastructure and support system. In experience from a professional as well as a personal addition to Gustavo and Scott’s generosity, this research perspective. project and visit have been made possible by funding from Harvard University and from Brazil’s National The purpose of this visit was to work on my Council for Scientific Development (CNPq). dissertation research on the aptly-named Variable Antshrike ( caerulescens). This bird species Gustavo has been a big influence in my career from South America includes populations whose breast since we met in Brazil some five years ago. I was and belly vary in color from pitch-black to pure white, finishing up my Masters and he was starting a postdoc with several shades of grey and brown in between. I am in the same lab. I was uncertain about what I wanted interested in locating the genes that control that color to do after getting my Masters, and conversations with variation, and in investigating what ecological factors Gustavo, who had just graduated with his PhD from might be correlated with it. The opportunity to go to LSU, had a big influence in my decision to come to LSU Harvard to work on this project arose when I learned for my PhD too. I was thrilled to work with him again, that Gustavo Bravo, a post-doc in Dr. Scott Edwards’ and he was indeed a wonderful teacher and mentor, lab at MCZ and a LSUMNS graduate, was planning going out of his way to make me feel welcome, guide

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 7 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Above: variation in the Variable Antshrike. My research inves- are several next-generation DNA sequencers. These tigates the genetic and ecological correlates of that variation. Digital are expensive and sensitive machines that only few drawings by Subir Shakya. Title Photo: The MCZ on my last week there, in December. On the week universities or companies are able to acquire and run, I arrived, in September, the temperature was in the nineties. so it was interesting for me to work in a lab that operates its own sequencers. I was allowed, after some training, to operate the equipment I needed in the Bauer core, me in the lab, and help fix some of my rookie mistakes. but the sequencers are the only machines that cannot Our partnership felt all the stronger because my PhD be operated by the researchers themselves, and have advisor, museum director Dr. Robb Brumfield, was dedicated staff to run them. Curious as I am, I couldn’t also Gustavo’s PhD advisor; and because Robb himself was once also a postdoc under Scott Edwards. In fact, most of the samples I used were collected by Robb when he was a member of the Edwards lab. I love the feeling of being part of this interlocking network of research and mentoring relationships. It’s all one big scientific family, and it’s one of the greatest things about being a scientist. I look forward to expanding this family with my own mentees sometime in the future!

As expected, Harvard’s facilities were extraordinary. Much of my work was conducted in the Bauer Core Facility, a state-of-the-art molecular lab housed in an enormous room that extends as far as the eye can see (or at least it seemed so to me at first!), two floors underground in an ultra-modern building on the Harvard campus. Among the many impressive pieces Me working at Harvard’s Bauer lab. Can you tell how happy I was to be of equipment available at the Bauer Core, the big stars there?!

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 8 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 magic of technology, and everything was eventually successful. Soon, I’ll have whole-genome data for 98 individuals of the Variable Antshrike. It’ll be one of the largest DNA sequence datasets ever amassed for a single species of bird. I can’t wait to put it to good use!

In the few intervals from lab work, I was also able to work in the MCZ’s collection of bird skins, which has recently been moved to a brand-new space four floors below ground in the same modern building as the Bauer molecular facility. That collection was once curated by Ernst Mayr, one of the most important ornithologists of all time and a father of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. And in addition to Mayr, the MCZ has also been home to other luminaries of evolutionary biology A sample of DNA from an antshrike specimen. Isn’t it a marvelous such as George G. Simpson, Stephen J. Gould, and E. O. thing that this tiny droplet of clear liquid contains answers to the Wilson. I felt greatly honored to work where they once secrets of evolution? worked, and their legacy was constantly in my thoughts throughout my time there. help nosing around the sequencers a little, but didn’t dare touch a finger on them, lest I broke something and E. O. Wilson is the only one of those great had to buy a new sequencer out of my modest graduate scientists who is still alive. I have read several of his student stipend! books, so I was very happy when I had the chance to watch him speak for a few minutes one evening. He I’m a part of the first generation of graduate seemed remarkably agile, both mentally and physically, students to have essentially started our careers after the from the top of his 89 years. Only his voice seemed a bit onset of the genomic era. Researchers from just one frail, although it did get noticeably firmer and louder generation ago, such as Gustavo, had plenty of experience to say, about saving the world’s biodiversity, that “WE with the less powerful but also less frightening Sanger CAN DO IT!” technology for DNA sequencing before they started doing genomic work. Myself, I had never done any I loved my time at Harvard. I worked a lot, learned type of molecular work before starting this project, a lot, and had fun a lot. The MCZ was a great place to so I was initially very nervous and insecure about my be. But I also missed the LSUMNS a lot, and initially I skills, and did make a few mistakes. Just to think about didn’t understand where that feeling was coming from. the sheer power of the technology was at times almost So I took to reflecting about the differences between overwhelming. Molecular samples look, to our naked working at a storied Ivy League institution versus at a eyes, like just increasingly tiny (and precious!) droplets small museum at a public school in the Deep South. I of water. I often marveled at what an astonishing feat eventually realized that what I missed the most was the it is that we are now able to relatively easily transform small-town feeling we have at LSUMNS. Here, I know that “water” into billions of little digital A’s, C’s, G’s and every single room of the building, and I know by first T’s that encode the mystery of life. I often thought of a name every single person that works in it. And I love that quote by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke: “Any feeling. It’s like living in a small town. It makes for a very sufficiently advanced technology is undistinguishable relaxing and supportive place to be a student. Although from magic”. that sensation might have been possible if I had stayed at MCZ longer, it certainly comes much more easily and Thankfully, though, and with the help of Gustavo more naturally in a small institution. At the end of the and Harvard’s dedicated support staff, I improved my semester, I couldn’t wait to feel that again, so I was as Me working at Harvard’s Bauer lab. Can you tell how happy I was to be happy to return to small, deep south LSUMNS as I had there?! lab skills a lot over those three months, worked the been initially to go to Ivy League Harvard!

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 9 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 West Expedition 2017

by Anna Hiller & Jessie Salter

The Museum of Natural Science has a long- lush swathes of grasses and reeds. These tanks attract term research interest in the Trans-Pecos region of many birds from the surrounding desert, like flocks Texas. George Lowery conducted a collection to the of Varied Buntings (Passerina versicolor), a common Guadalupe Mountains in the 1940s and John P. O’Neill Mexican species whose range barely extends into the has been collecting in the region since the 1960s. U.S., brightly colored Painted Buntings (Passerina As a continuation of this, we (LSUMNS graduate ciris), and swarms of Lesser Nighthawks (Chordeiles students Jessie Salter and Anna Hiller) co-led a two- acutipennis), who flew over the water at dusk feeding week expedition to West Texas, visiting two Wildlife on insects. Though seemingly a contradiction in terms, Management areas within the Trans-Pecos region: Black we also collected a few desert waterbirds (late migrants Gap WMA and Elephant Mountain WMA. Joined by stopping over on the tank), including a Blue-winged our lab mates Oscar Johnson and Andre Moncrieff, Teal (Anas discors), a Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), we surveyed Chihuahuan desert bird communities and a White-rumped Sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis). and added specimens to the collection from a region of particular biogeographic interest. After a successful first week in the field, we said goodbye to Black Gap WMA and headed north to Bordering Big Bend National Park to the west and Elephant Mountain WMA, stopping in Alpine along the the Rio Grande to the east, Black Gap WMA is home to way for supplies and top-notch chile verde burritos. We 103,000 spectacular acres of Chihuahuan desert scrub. arrived at our second location of the trip just after lunch: After meeting the WMA managers and getting situated Elephant Mountain WMA. Rising from the center of in the bunkhouse, we were eager to scout locations for the WMA is a large tabletop mountain, which from a our mist net lines (which led to a close encounter with a certain angle resembles a sleeping elephant, complete family of Collared Peccaries, the first of many mammals with trunk. The mountain top is home to Desert we would see on our trip). For the next few days, we Bighorn Sheep, so it was off limits to us, but we were explored the washes around the headquarters area, free to explore the surrounding valleys, cottonwood collecting desert scrub birds like Scott’s Orioles (Icterus riparian areas, and the Del Norte Mountains, which parisorum), Ash-throated Flycatchers (Myiarchus form the eastern boundary of the WMA. Elephant cinerascens), Pyrrhuloxia ( sinuatus), and Mountain WMA is about 2000 feet higher in elevation Cactus Wrens (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus). than Black Gap WMA, and the cooler temperatures were a refreshing change. Although the low-lying desert Scattered throughout the scrubland of Black scrub habitats contained many of the same species Gap WMA are dozens of water tanks surrounded by as Black Gap WMA, a short hike up the Del Norte

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 10 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 (1) Male Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris); (2) Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu); (3) Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus ornatus); (4) Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi) peeking out of his telephone home at the Black Gap WMA headquarters; (5) Female Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus), collo- quially known as a desert ;; (6) Female Varied Bunting (Passerina versicolor) - she doesn’t have the blues, reds, and purples of the male, but she’s still a beauty! Title Photo: The road to the Rio Grande at Black Gap WMA. Those hills on the right hand side of the photo are in !

Mountains brought us into Pinyon-Juniper woodland, a our expedition. habitat unique to high-elevation deserts of the Western Last, we wanted to thank Travis Smith at Black U.S. Here we collected two new species for the trip - Gap WMA, Dewey Stockbridge at Elephant Mountain Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii), a WMA, and Mark Garrett with the Texas Parks and Pinyon-oak specialist, and Gray Vireo (Vireo vicinor), Wildlife Department Trans-Pecos Ecological Region for a range-restricted desert woodland species. Highlights their help making this trip happen and for allowing us from the surrounding scrub and cottonwood areas to work on the WMAs! included Vermilion Flycatchers (Pyrocephalus rubinus), Lillian’s Meadowlark (Sturnella magna lilianae), the pale southwestern of the Eastern Meadowlark, and a Zone-tailed Hawk sighting (Buteo albonotatus). We also spotted Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), Elk (Cervus canadensis), and an Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus ornatus). Oh, and Oscar chased a North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) into a bush to get photos.

Conclusion Overall it was a fantastic trip. During 12 days of fieldwork, we collected 206 individuals of 60 species, filling important gaps in both temporal and geographic distribution in the LSUMNS collections. Many ongoing bird projects studying southwestern avifauna will Jessie Salter and Oscar Johnson watch the sunset in Elephant Mountain directly benefit from the specimens we collected during WMA after a long day in the field.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 11 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Ninth Annual Yellow Rails and Rice Festival

by Donna L. Dittmann and Steve W. Cardiff

The Ninth Annual festival was held 1-5 research activities farther afield. November 2017 and again was based in Jennings, LA, in the heart of our SW rice-growing region. The festival is a The festival’s prime objective is to show visitors unique combination of “agritourism” and “ecotourism” the festival’s namesake, the Yellow Rail (Coturnicops experiences and was again sold-out. Participants in noveboracensis) while at the same time showcasing search of Yellow Rails traveled to Louisiana from 25 US the area’s general abundance and diversity of birds in states, Mexico, Canada, Scotland, and Germany to visit its “working wetlands” (rice and crawfish). This year’s harvest sites at The Yellow Rail Capital of the World - weather started off wet, so the festival was forced to Thornwell, Louisiana. activate its elaborate Weather Contingency Plan into action. Unfortunately, rain washed-out Wednesday’s LSUMNS is a festival co-sponsor and each year LSUMNS staff and graduate students assist the event in many ways from ranging from event coordinators to being volunteer field trip leaders and/or rail field “facilitators,” manning an information booth, or by providing logistical support. LSUMNS 2017 YRARF volunteers included (in alphabetical order): Matt Brady, Steve Cardiff, Valerie Derouen, Donna Dittmann, Anna Hiller, Tammie Jackson, Oscar Johnson, Dan Lane, and Andre Moncrieff. LSUMNS undergrads Anna Cole and Marky Mutchler, as well as museum volunteer Brian Magnier also assisted this year. LSUMNS personnel were able to share with festival participants their enthusiasm and knowledge Above: Steve Cardiff welcomes the YRARF 017 participants at the open- of Louisiana’s birds, as well as information about their ing reception in Jennings.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 12 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Left:Searching for rails from on board the combine. Photo by Anna Cole. Middle & Right: Erik I. Johnson, Banding Workshop Leader, Audubon Louisiana with a Yellow Rail after banding and prior to release. Participants gather around the Banding Workshop tent for the opportunity to see a Yellow Rail and other species in the hand. Title Photo: Stormy weather moved through the area Wednesday during Beat the Crowds, cancelling harvest that afternoon and saturating fields and delaying harvest on Thursday.

“Beat the Crowds” rice harvesting session and delayed the one bird was flushed on Thursday, with 15 on Friday and abbreviated Thursday afternoon’s harvest activities. (4 yellows banded), and four (2 banded) on Saturday. But, during the combine’s last circuit on Thursday, one Yellow Rail flushed and then landed where all could Harvest site eBird checklists: admire it. It was also captured and banded. The Banding Thursday, 2 November 2017: http://ebird.org/ebird/ Workshop, coordinated by Dr. Erik I. Johnson (Audubon view/checklist/S40275479 Louisiana, Louisiana Bird Observatory), also had to Friday, 3 November 2017: http://ebird.org/ebird/ readjust its schedule due to weather. Friday’s Coastal view/checklist/S40468876 Night Rail Trip (new this year, with hopes of banding Saturday, 4 November 2017: http://ebird.org/ebird/ a Black Rail) was shifted to Thursday evening, so that view/checklist/S32449135 field trip group was not able to linger at the Jambalaya Social at Myer’s Landing. However, the evening coast As in previous years, participants were able trip was a great success and included the capture and to observe Louisiana’s spectacular abundance and banding of the first Black Rail (plus one Yellow banded) diversity of birds during field trips through rice country, during a Yellow Rails and Rice Festival! to the coast of Cameron Parish, and to the longleaf pineywoods of the Kisatchie National Forest in Vernon In addition to missing a day + of harvest time, Parish. Field trips also discovered a couple of rarities: Yellow Rail numbers seemed lower than in 2016: only Long-tailed Duck at the Crowley Wastewater Treatment

After a quick bite to eat, the Coastal Rail Trip caravan left Myer’s Landing for their evening adventure to Cameron (L). The moment of success was relayed by a texted photo to Donna and Steve by Erik I. Johnson - the first YRARF Black Rail! (R)

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 13 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Above: YRARF field trip visiting Jetty Park in Cameron. Photo by Anna Cole. Below: The star of the show – a Yellow Rail flushes in advance of a combine. Photo by Marky Mutchler.

Plant; a Ruff at a harvest site while participants hung out during a weather delay. By covering a diversity of habitats, participants had a chance to see over 200 bird species as well as to enjoy the area’s culture, cuisine, and hospitality.

In 2018 YRARF celebrates its 10th year; the event is scheduled for 31 October-4 November 2018 – if you would like to be on the festival email list, then contact: [email protected]. Keep an eye on the website for information updates about this year’s event: http://www.snowyegretenterprises.com/Snowy_ Egret_Enterprises/Yellow_Rails_%26_Rice_Festival. html

Registration will open on 1 August 2018 and spaces do fill quickly!

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 14 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Frozen: The Story and Science Behind the December Nature Cover

by Paige Jarreau

Tiny triangular, textured fossils of ancient pol- Sheet may contribute substantially to global sea level len grains swim on a beautiful blue icy background on rise as Earth’s climate warms. the cover of Nature’s December issue, released [Decem- ber 14]. Frozen in time, these fossilized pollen extracted But let’s get back to the role those tiny fossilized from ocean sediments tell a story about how Antarcti- pollen grains played in helping researchers decipher the ca’s largest ice sheet has changed throughout history. history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet – and in earning this paper a spot on the illustrious cover of Nature Sophie Warny, Associate Professor in the LSU magazine. Read on to learn about the story and science Department of Geology & Geophysics and Associate behind the Nature cover this month from LSU’s own Professor and Curator of the Center for Excellence in ancient pollen expert Sophie Warny. Palynology (CENEX) in the LSU Museum of Natural Science, meticulously captured these portraits of rare Q: Congratulations on having your research featured Antarctic pollen grains for a Nature research paper she on the cover of Nature Magazine this month! Can you co-authored. Sophie and collaborators at the University give us some background on the cover and the science of Texas at Austin and the University of South Florida it represents? found that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet may not be as stable as it seems. This ice sheet has been very dynamic, Sophie Warny: The cover features microfossil with a long history of expanding and shrinking. The pollen grains, which are one of the types of geological glaciers in this region may be particularly susceptible data our research team used to study the evolution of the to climate change because they flow from the Aurora East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Questions we are attempting Basin, a region of East Antarctica that mostly lies below to address are, has this ice sheet been stable over time, sea level. This means that, today, the East Antarctic Ice or does it have a history of expanding and retreating?

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 15 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 And what factors drive sudden temperature shifts in lucky to be given the chance to conduct analyses of these Antarctica? Some of the most direct ways to answer rare samples. Graduate student Catherine (Katy) Smith these questions are for instance to use seismic evidences worked with me to evaluate the cores for this project as (what the lead author Sean Gulick did) and to quantify part of her Master’s thesis. past environmental conditions both on land and in the ocean by studying the pollen, spores and dinoflagellate Q: When did you learn you might be eligible for the fossils contained in well-dated Antarctic sediments cover art based on your Nature paper? What do you (my role). We can compare the types of microfossils think made your piece especially attractive to the we find to known drivers of temperature shifts such as editors? atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and oxygen isotope data. Sophie Warny: We were notified in the fall of 2017 that our paper was accepted. Once a paper is The Center for Excellence in Palynology accepted in a journal, you have the option to submit a (CENEX) at LSU is one of the main centers in the cover image. I discussed the possibility of submitting United States that trains palynologists. Palynology is some pollen pictures with the lead authors, and they a branch of paleontology that focuses on microfossils accepted. By then, I had to move quickly as the cover that have organic walls and range in size from about 10 submission has to be done before the paper goes to to 100 microns (the size of the width of human hair, press. or smaller). These microfossils, called “palynomorphs,” include pollen, spores and algae such as acritarchs or I immediately contacted Dr. Clayton Loehn at dinoflagellate cysts. These microscopic palynomorphs the Shared Instrumentation Facility at LSU and asked are extremely resistant and can be preserved throughout him if he could free up a day, even during the week- the geological record for millions of years. By extracting end or at night, on the facility’s scanning electron these microfossils from sediments and analysing them, microscope (SEM) for this submission. He did, and I we can learn which species of plant and algae were prepared the sediment samples that I thought would present at a particular location over a wide range of have the best chance of a good microfossil recovery geological time. for imaging. I spent a day scanning the samples I had prepared in hopes of finding the perfectly positioned My portion of our study published in Nature pollen grain from key plant species. this month was to evaluate what plants, if any, lived in the past at the location of the East Antarctic Ice After taking a few good SEM shots, I cleaned the Sheet, based on sediment recovered by the Antarctic images in Adobe Photoshop. We submitted them shortly expedition NBP14-02. We took core samples of mud after that. I didn’t know if they would be selected, but below the seafloor on the East Antarctica Sabrina Coast it’s not every day that you have the chance to compete and extracted and analysed ancient pollen in the mud for a Nature cover, so I didn’t want to have any regrets to determine the age of the samples. As an ice sheet of not submitting something! About a month later, we advances, vegetation retreats and eventually disappears. were notified that our submission was selected. Best The overall goal of the project, led by Sean Gulick at Christmas present ever. UT Austin and Amelia Shevenell at the University of South Florida, was to analyse the past evolution of the Q: Can you tell us more about how the cover art East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The palynological analysis was made? How do you get these close-up images of my lab conducted was integrated into the objectives of pollen? How much of this is science, how much is art? my CAREER grant (U.S. National Science Foundation ANT-1048343), to decipher Antarctic climate variability Sophie Warny: The process to isolate these pollen during the Cenozoic era. grains from mud samples and take their pictures is quite long and difficult. First, you have to locate and retrieve The microfossil samples recovered fromsediments via seismic and other analyses. Getting the expedition cores were simply amazing, and I was truly funding to go drill in Antarctica isn’t easy. The cores for

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 16 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 this project were acquired by the two lead authors of our Louisiana State University (LSU) Museum of Natural Nature paper. Then, the cores drilled in Antarctica have Science. to be brought back to the Antarctic Research Facility in Tallahassee, Florida, which is currently the central point I submitted nine images to Nature, and the in the U.S. where Antarctic cores are stored. Nature design group selected the six specimens that are on the cover. The use of various microscopes such Next, the cores have to be sampled. We collected as SEM is essential because pollen grains are tiny, about 20 grams of sediment from various levels in the measuring just a few microns across, so the only way to cores. The next step is to extract the palynomorphs identify them is to go in close-up mode. (like fossilized pollen) from the muddy sediment. For Q: What do the different pollen shapes represent? that, the samples have to be processed using chemical How did you choose which shapes to include on the palynological techniques where the dried sediment Nature cover? is successively treated with hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid to remove carbonates and silicates. Sophie Warny: Researchers at the Royal Botanic After that step, we are left with a variety of organic Gardens in Kew in the UK have estimated that there components. To isolate the pollen and spores from are about 391,000 species of vascular plants on Earth. this organic residue, we have to sieve the samples This is just today. As geologists and paleontologists, we between a 10 and 250 µm fraction, and the remaining study what lived on our planet in the geological past. palynological fraction is mounted on microscope slides Many of the plants that existed in the Palaeozoic for using glycerin jelly as a mounting medium. Here at instance, are now extinct. Because ancient sediments CENEX, we analyze these slides using an Olympus BX41 can contain pollen or spores from any of millions of transmitted-light microscope with a 60x oil immersion different species, the job of a palynologist is extremely objective to evaluate species abundance and diversity. difficult and requires a very extensive specialized library. With the knowledge of what species are present in which CENEX, thanks to partnerships with industry and samples, we can then image particular pollen grains various donations, has one of the largest palynological on an FEI Quanta 3D thermal field-emission sourced libraries in the world. The shape of a pollen grain or dual-beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) to a spore is unique to a particular plant species, so the get high-resolution images such as those seen on this detailed study of the morphology of these specimens is month’s Nature cover! key to taxonomic evaluation.

Q: Where did these pollen grains come from? What As far as choosing the shape, I really didn’t. made you decide to image these pollen grains in such These species are some of the most abundant present close-up detail? in Antarctic sediment sampled, so this was a natural selection process. Sophie Warny: The images on the Nature cover represent a group of rare Antarctic pollen grains. These Q: Why are the pollen grains on the cover different particular specimens were extracted from sediments colors? Did you decide on the colors? acquired in 2014 aboard the Research Vessel N.B. Palmer, from piston core JPC-55, off the Sabrina Coast Sophie Warny: We were asked to provide a of Antarctica. These specimens are part of a newly variety of colored images (the original images taken discovered palynoflora [the pollen and spores of a region with the SEM are in grayscale), and the staff at Nature or site, considered as a whole] that include the plant selected to include various colors. The colors do not species Gambierina edwardsii and Phyllocladidites have any scientific meaning. mawsonii, which were used to determine the age of sedimentary samples, as well as new species that we Q: What was it like working with the photo and are currently in the process of describing and hope to graphics editors at Nature to create the cover? How submit for publication soon. The microscope slides are did they tweak it? Did you learn anything useful in housed in the CENEX Pollen and Spore Collection at this process for future reference when submitting

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 17 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 potential cover art? of my former doctoral and master’s students are now leading biostratigraphers [Biostratigraphy is the branch Sophie Warny: That was actually super fast – it of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and took them just a few hours to put the cover together from assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil our images. I like that they choose an “icy” background assemblages contained within them] with major oil and to evoke the feeling that the sediments were recovered gas companies. from Antarctica. The tough part was to agree on the few words that would be associated with the image on the In addition to dating, pollen and spores can be cover. That took a lot of back and forth emails. used to reconstruct past climates (as we did in this Nature paper) because the type and range of palynomorphs Q: What are your top tips for other researchers present in a sample may be unique to different locations, interested in having their research graphics featured climates and environments. I hope that the cover will on the cover of Nature? bring awareness to the fact that we know more and more about how our planet’s climate evolved and how Sophie Warny: These covers take time, so you it is going to respond to current climatic changes. We need to decide whether or not this is something that now know that the largest ice sheet in the world (the matters to you. I choose to dedicate a couple of days of East Antarctic Ice Sheet), which if fully melted would my time playing with my raw SEM pictures, cropping contribute a total of over 50 meters of sea-level rise to them and coloring them. Not everyone enjoys spending the world oceans, is not as stable as we first thought. time with Photoshop – it is probably the creative side in me that enjoys this. Also, you need to have the right Palynomorphs can also be used to predict item to illustrate. In our case, it was easy because pollen future crop abundances, trace illegal imports of drugs grains are just gorgeous, and some of these species are or stolen goods, or to solve crime. I am very proud that likely new to science, so they are very unique. my last doctoral student, Shannon Ferguson, is now a full-time forensic palynologist with the Department of Q: How is this cover art meaningful to you? Do Homeland Security. you think it will have an impact for you personally or professionally? What kind of feedback have you gotten about the cover art so far?

Sophie Warny: My family and some of my colleagues have been very excited for me. The cover Title Photo: Cover of the December 14 edition of the journal Nature might not mean much for some scientific colleagues, featuring a selection of fossilized pollen from sediment cores collected but for me, having my SEM images on the cover of from East Antarctica’s continental shelf. Nature is the best day of my career so far. It definitely made my day to receive the acceptance email.

I hope the cover will make our field of palynology better known. It is still used too rarely in the U.S. Very few universities teach our specialty, and many students graduate with an undergraduate degree in geology without knowing what palynology is or what microfossils are and what they can do. Yet, the field of palynology is extremely powerful and can provide a diversity of information for basic or applied research. For instance, our knowledge of plant evolution through time means that the pollen extracted from cuttings at exploration wells can be used to date oil-bearing sequences. Several

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 18 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 The Crude Life Portable Museum by Paige Jarreau

The Crude Life Portable Museum, A Citizen Art and country, from California to the Gulf of Mexico region to Science Investigation of Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity after Boston, packed in wooden “treasure chests.” The trunks the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, popped into the LSU themselves are antique sea chests retrofitted with from Museum of Natural Science in January, 2018, making a wood salvaged from buildings and trees damaged by splash for curious visitors wanting to escape unusually icy hurricanes. Climate change has created this museum. weather in Louisiana. Crude Life is the brainchild of LSU postdoctoral Crude Life is hard to define. It’s objects and researcher Brandon Ballengée, a scientist and artifacts, it’s scientific research, it’s a place, it’s science, internationally renowned artist who teamed up with it’s art, it’s climate change embodied. Prosanta Chakrabarty, Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes at the LSU Museum of Natural Crude Life is a mobile museum showcasing Science, to explore biodiversity changes in the Gulf endemic specimens and species affected by climate of Mexico on the heels the 2010 oil spill and climate change and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, from change. The project is both an artistic exploration as tiny fishes, to insects, to aquatic mammals, in galleries well as a science and citizen science investigation of that combine science and art. The project is a multi- Gulf of Mexico biodiversity over time, funded through institution collaboration between artists, scientists, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative. musicians, and professionals who occupy the spaces between these disciplines. The museum, full of marine The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill had far- species preserved in glasses, jars and boxes, artistic reaching impacts that are still not fully understood. The scientific drawings, microscope slides full of tiny marine spill affected marine life, Gulf Coast communities and plants and animals, insects and minerals in pretty glass even individuals internationally, including Brandon, vials, and even odd-shaped nut shells representing the who traveled to Louisiana from Quebec, Canada on tiny sculptures squirrels and other animals create as several occasions in the aftermath of the spill to work they co-inhabit our environment, travels around the with Gulf communities, volunteer and create art inspired

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 19 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 carrying cases that can be transported via airplane or car as a “museum on the road,” when Brandon contacted him about Crude Life.

“This type of museum makes you question whether it’s a place, or an object, which for an artist is a really interesting question” Sean said. “Can you give an object the authority of a place?”

Brandon and Sean explored and settled upon the idea of an interactive ‘pop-up’ museum for the project. “The minute that Brandon said he was interested in making an open-air museum, or a museum of the imagination, I got really excited,” Sean said. “Each Crude Life trunk acts as its own gallery, or wing of a museum. We can take the trunks and set them up on a pier along the coast, for example, and really put the collections and objects in people’s hands in a playful way. It’s really interesting, because ‘Cabinets of Wonder’ that combined art and science existed long before modern museums of science and natural history. But we’ve lost something in the transition to modern museums. With Crude Life, we are working to build a bridge back to the ‘Cabinets of Wonder’ that combine both art and science.”

Link Morgan (top right) and Prosanta Chakrabarty (bottom) talk to Anything and everything in the museum is guests about the exhibit. Photos by Paige Jarreau. meant to be explored, picked up and interacted with – not exactly like your typical science museum. The by this crisis to promote awareness and engagement. museum’s very presence is often a surprise for viewers. “It’s fun to show us somewhere with these trunks and “All the loss, the loss of life, really struck me, and open them up as people wonder, ‘What’s going on??’ I wanted to do something about it,” Brandon said. Every museum is trying to inspire curiosity it its viewers and get them engaged, and I think the element Brandon quickly got to work collecting of surprise with the mobile museum helps make that Gulf of Mexico specimens as well as citizen stories happen,” Sean said. of environmental changes with colleagues in the Chakrabarty lab. He also reached out to Sean Miller, an “We’ve been chipping away at creating the associate professor in University of Florida’s College of Crude Life museum for two years now,” Brandon said. the Arts, with a revolutionary idea – create a portable “We want to add a few more pieces, but it’s almost Gulf of Mexico biodiversity museum that would travel complete. Now we are focused on getting the museum to the people who stand to lose the most from the oil out into the community, taking the trunks to schools, spill’s impacts, biodiversity loss and climate change. Mardi Gras parades and other community events to teach people about the Gulf of Mexico biodiversity, oil Sean informed the overall design of the Crude spill and climate impacts. Hopefully it helps people feel Life exhibits, and also created many of the paintings inspired and more connected to the Gulf.. My focus is to viewers can see in the mobile museum. Sean was reach rural communities that don’t have easy access to working on a John Erickson Museum of Art project, contemporary art spaces or museums. Sometimes when a location variable museum composed of aluminum

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 20 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Close ups of some of the trunks. Photos by Paige Jarreau. two have been found with the help of citizen efforts, but Brandon hopes that others will get involved to look for we take the museum out into the community, kids are the rest. Brandon plans to take the Crude Life mobile using a microscope to visualize our specimens for the museum chests to Gulf of Mexico fishing rodeos and first time, and learning a new way of seeing the world. fishing competitions in the near future, to get more I think this is very important, especially in Louisiana, folks involved in looking for the missing species. where we have substandard public science education statistics.” Individuals and organizations who want to get involved with the Crude Life can contact Brandon through Brandon hopes that Crude Life visitors walk his website, brandonballengee.com or at bballengee@ away inspired, wanting to learn more. “We live in this lsu.edu. Citizens and kids who attend Crude Life events incredibly biological diverse place, yet we know so little along the Gulf can help Chakrabarty and Ballengée’s team about it,” Brandon said. “I hope we can hook people, collect specimens, learn about the process of clearing and inspire them and make them care.” staining specimens for morphological analysis, and create art surrounding their experiences. Shrimpers and other Another mission of the Crude Life project is fishing organizations can also get involved by contacting to empower citizens to take part in scientific research. Ballengée about saving bycatch for identification of For example, Brandon is collaborating with Louisiana endemic species. Ballengée has a handout of 15 marine fisherman and shrimpers to look for elusive marine species that haven’t been seen since the spill, that fisherman species have haven’t been seen since the 2010 oil spill. and citizens can be on the lookout for. Out of the original “Wanted” list of missing species,

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 21 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Investigators: Dr. Brandon Ballengée (PI, Louisiana State University) Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty (Co-PI, Louisiana State University) Sean Owen Miller (Co-PI, University of Florida) Rachel Mayeri (Co-PI, Harvey Mudd College)

Collaborators: Dr. Suzanne Fredericq (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) Aurore Ballengée (Atelier de la Nature) Monique Michelle Verdin (My Louisiana Love) Dr. Benjamin Dubansky (University of Texas Denton)

Participants: Senator Norbert ‘Norby’ Nolty Chabert (Louisiana State Senate) Cherri Foytlin (Bold Louisiana) Josh Baumgardener (Haliburton) Dr. Edward Chesney (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium/ LUMCON) Dr. Alexander Kolker (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium/ LUMCON) Dr. Linda Hooper Bui (Louisiana State University) Blaise Daniel Pezold (Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s Coastal Re-Vegetation Project) Randon Dufrene (Tee Jug’s Shrimp Company) Bob Chateaulin (Private horticulturalist) Keith Broussard (Fish and Wildlife Manager of Cypremort State Park) Jonathan Foret (Executive Director South Louisiana Wetlands Discover Center) Link Morgan (Louisiana State University) Members of the Pointe-Aux-Chenes Tribe + Students and residents of the Louisiana coast regions

Support Received: Interdisciplinary Projects Grant Award, National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI), a project of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Washington D.C.; Artspark Grant, Acadiana Center for the Arts (ACA) and Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA), Lafayette, LA.; and University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 22 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 OUTREACH ROUNDUP DEAN’S CIRCLE DINNER HALLOWEEN ART & NATURE FESTIVAL On October 13, we were On October 28th, we invited to the Dean’s attended the Halloween Circle Dinner held at the Art & Nature Festival Baton Rouge Hilton. We at Atelier de la Nature had specimens from our in Arnaudville, LA. We collections on display brought along some and were able to speak spooky specimens like to College of Science do- an owl, bat, snakes, and nors about the amazing creepy fish. The crude research happening at life trunks were also on the LSUMNS. Thanks to Dajia Collins for helping out. display. Thanks toLink Morgan & Prosanta Chakrabarty for helping with this event, USFWS WILD THINGS and thanks to Brandon Ballengée for hosting. On October 14, we OCEAN COMMOTION attended the 9th an- nual Wild Things event On October 24, we hosted by USFWS and once again participated LDWF in Lacombe, LA. in Ocean Commotion We brought along some at the LSU PMAC. mammals, fish, amphib- Our table entitled ians, and reptiles to “Modern and Fossil teach kids about biodi- Sea Monsters” featured versity. Thanks to Anna bizarre fish, sea birds, Cole for helping out. a basilosaurus jaw cast and vertebra, and GIRL SCOUTS B.I.G. EVENT the crude life trunks. Thanks to Bill Ludt, AJ Turner, Brandon Ballengee, Matt Brady, Brian Magnier, Prosanta On October 21st, we Chakrabarty, and Larry Bird for helping out! participated in the Girl Scouts of Louisiana East MASTER NATURALIST WORKSHOP B.I.G. (Believe in Girls) event in New Orleans, On December 2, Louisiana. We had a we once again put on a specimen table filled workshop for the Loui- with mammals, fish, siana Master Naturalists amphibians, and reptiles, of Greater Baton Rouge as well as information on about the importance museum programs and field trips. Thanks to Vivien Chua for and function of natural helping out! history museums. After an overview of the mu- WESTDALE MIDDLE STEM NIGHT seum, participants went on behind the scenes tours of the bird, mammal, fish, genetic re- On December 7th, sources, and amphibian & reptile collections to learn about how we attended Westdale each collection operates and current research at the museum. Middle’s STEM Night. Later, participants learned how we prep bird specimens. Thanks We were able to show to Steve Cardiff, Donna Dittmann, Jake Esselstyn, Prosanta middle schoolers some Chakrabarty, and Zach Rodriguez for helping out. cool animals and talk about biodiversity and conservation.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 23 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 SPECIAL SATURDAYS

Into the Dark LSUMNS graduate student Pam Hart, led a Special Saturdays all about adaptations to life in a cave. She spoke about how animals in caves usually rely on other senses to survive since eyesight is not as useful in the dark. We had many cave dwelling specimens on display including salamanders, fish, and bats. After the talk, participants participated in a sensory deprivation activity where they had to use their other senses to figure out objects, smells, sounds, and complete tasks. Thanks to Anna Hiller, Fernando Alda, Larry Bird, Anna Cole, and Diego Elias for helping out.

Is it Venomous? LSUMNS graduate student Zach Rodriguez taught participants how to tell the difference between Louisiana’s venomous and non-venomous snakes. The participants also got to view snake specimens up close as well as some other common amphibians and reptiles in Louisiana. Afterwards, the participants made their own venomous snake guides and accordion snakes. Thanks to Ryan Burner, Glaucia Del-Rio, Jackson Roberts, Meg Roberts, Genevieve Mount, and Larry Bird for helping out.

Traveling Near and Far LSUMNS graduate student Clare Brown taught participants all about bird body forms and how they are adapted to their unique lifestyles. She covered things like covered wings, , and feet and used specimens as real life examples. Afterwards, participants created their own birds where they had to decide on morphological characters to fit their bird’s lifestyle. Thanks to Jessie Salter for helping out.

Insect Adapations For this event, we were joined by the LSU Department of Entomology. Madeleine Chura spoke to participants about some amazing adaptations of insects that live in extreme environments. The entomology club also brought along live insects for the kids to view and touch. Later, participants did an insect life cycle craft. Thanks to Alexandra Haynes, Diego Elias, and Janie Braud for helping out.

To register for a Special Saturday visit: http://www.lsu.edu/mns/education/special-saturdays.php

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 24 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

Mammals On November 30, we hosted our 3rd Night at the Museum of the semester. LSUMNS Curator of Mammals, Dr. Jake Esselstyn, spoke to guests about convergent evolution in mammals. Graduate students Varshith Chakrapani and Vivien Chua presented tables that showed convergence between gliding mammals and also myrmecophagous (ant- eating mammals). Graduate student Jon Nations did a specimen prep demonstration on a squirrel. Later, Dr. Esselstyn gave behind the scenes tours of the mammal collection. All of the specimens on display are part of the LSUMNS research collections, which are used by scientists worldwide to learn about biodiversity, evolution, and conservation. Thanks to all who came out and special thanks to Jackson Roberts for filling in last minute!

UPCOMING OUTREACH EVENTS

March 3 - Special Saturdays - Amazing Reptiles April 21 - BREC BioBlitz Biodiversity Fair 10am-12pm; Museum of Natural Science (Foster Hall) 2pm-4pm; Greenwood Community Park; Baton Rouge, LA March 9 - Girls Night at the Museum Museum of Natural Science April 22 - Earth Day For girls 4th-6th grade. (Applications closed) TBA

March 10 - Rockin’ at the Swamp May 5 - Master Naturalists of Greater Baton Rouge Bluebonnet Swamp; Baton Rouge, LA Workshop 8am-2pm, Museum of Natural Science (Foster Hall) April 5 - Night at the Museum - Amphibians & Reptiles 6pm-8pm; Museum of Natural Science (Foster Hall)

April 13 - Special Saturdays - Nemos & Dorys 10am-12pm; Museum of Natural Science (Foster Hall)

For more information on outreach events and museum tours, contact Valerie Derouen [email protected].

More photos from all of our outreach events can be found on our Facebook page.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 25 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 MNS NEWS & UPDATES

O’Neill receives highest Linnean Society Honor

Huge congratulations to former LSUMNS director, Dr. John O’Neill who will receive the Eisenmann Medal from the Linnean Society in New York City. The Eisenmann Medal is the Linnaean Society’s highest award, given for “excellence in ornithology and encouragement of the amateur.” He will be presented with the award at the society’s annual meeting and dinner on March 13 and the talk will be given by LSUMNS Research Associate, Daniel Lane. Johnson, Salter receive Mouw Awards

Congratulations to LSUMNS graduate students Oscar Johnson and Jessie Salter who received the 2016 and 2017 Mouw Awards respectively. The Mouw award recognizes the “enthusiasm, hard work, and promise of that student to be an outstanding scholar in avian biology.” The award is worth $200.

Outstanding Graduate Student - Glenn Seeholzer

Congratulations to recent LSUMNS ornithology graduate Glenn Seeholzer who received the 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Glenn is now a post-doctoral fellow with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Chakrabarty named Senior TED Fellow

Congratulations to LSUMNS Curator of Ichthyology Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty who was named one of the 10 2018 Senior TED Fellows.

Derouen receives Staff Outstanding Service Award

Congratulations to LSUMNS Outreach Coordinator Valerie Derouen who received the Staff Outstanding Service Award from the LSU Foundation.

New Student - Irene Martí

New PhD student from Spain joining the Saunders Lab in Anthropology.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 26 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 March 2: Dr. Jason Bond, Auburn University Title: “Using phylogenomics to deconstruct the spider tree of life”

March 9: Dr. Ingo Schlupp, University of Oklahoma Title: “Ecology and Evolution in Livebearing Fishes: A drama in several acts”

March 16: Dr. Scott Taylor, University of Colorado Boulder Title: “Insights from avian hybrid zones into the origin and maintenance of biodiversity”

March 23: Dr. Jordan Karubian, Tulane University Title: “Proximate and ultimate perspectives of phenotypic integration in Malurus fairywrens”

March 30: No Seminar - Spring Break

April 6: Dr. Jeff Lozier, University of Alabama Title: “Buzzing Through a Complex World: Population genomics of bumble bees across heterogeneous landscapes”

April 13: Therese Lamperty, Rice University Title: “Impacts of defaunation on invertebrate communities and ecosystem processes”

April 20: Dr. Gregg Gorton, Temple University Title: “Ted Parker: A snapshot of his life and work”

April 27: Dr. Kevin McCracken, University of Miami Title: “Genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in Andean ducks, with insights into how long it takes to evolve a predictable high-altitude phenotype (or not).”

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 27 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 2017 LSUMNS Publications

Alda, F., Adams, A.J.f, McMillan, W.O., Chakrabarty, P. 2017. Complete mitochondrial genomes of three Neotropical sleeper gobies: Eleotris amblyopsis, Eleotris picta and Hemieleotris latifasciata (: ). Mitochondrial DNA Part B: Resources 2: 747-750.

Barley, A.J., J.M. Brown, and R.C. Thomson. 2017. Impact of model violations on the inference of species boundaries under the multispecies coalescent. Systematic Biology. In Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syx073

Branstetter, MG, A Ješovnik, J Sosa-Calvo, M Lloyd, BC Faircloth, S Brady, T Schultz. Dry habitats were crucibles of domestication in the evolution of agriculture in ants. Proc Roy Soc B 284:20170095. pmid: 28404776 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0095.

Branstetter, MG, BN Danforth, JP Pitts, BC Faircloth, PS Ward, ML Buffington, MW Gates, RR Kula, SG Brady. Phylogenomic Insights into the evolution of stinging wasps and the origins of ants and bees. Curr Biol 27:1019-1025. pmid: 28376325 doi: 10.1016/j. cub.2017.03.027.

Branstetter, MG, JT Longino, PS Ward, BC Faircloth. Enriching the ant tree of life: enhanced UCE bait set for genome-scale phylogenetics of ants and other Hymenoptera. Methods Ecol Evol 8:768-776. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12742.

Brown, J.M. and R.C. Thomson. 2017. Bayes factors unmask highly variable information content, bias, and extreme influence in phylogenomic analyses. Systematic Biology. 66: 517-530.

Butler, J.M., Whitlow, S.M., Gwan, A.P., Chakrabarty, P., Maruska, K.P. 2017. Swim bladder morphology changes with female reproductive state in the mouth brooding African cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni. Journal of Experimental Biology 220: 4463-4470

Castrezana, S, BC Faircloth, W Bridges, PA Gowaty. Polyandry enhances offspring viability with survival costs to mothers only when exposed exclusively to virgin males in Drosophila melanogaster. Ecol Evol 7:7515–7526. doi: 10.1002/ece3.3152.

Chakrabarty, P., Faircloth, B., Ludt, W.B., McMahan, C.D., Near, T.J., Dornberg, A., Albert, J.S., Arroyave, J., Stiassny, M.L.J.S., Sorenson, L., Alfaro, M.E. 2017. Phylogenomic Systematics of Ostariophysan fishes: Ultraconserved Elements Support the surprising non- monophyly of Characiformes. Systematic Biology 66(6): 881-895. [Cover and lead article]

Chesser, R. T., K. J. Burns, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, A. W. Kratter, I. J. Lovette, P. C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., J. A. Rising, D. F. Stotz, & K. Winker. 2018. Fifty-eight supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 134: 751−773.

Chua, V.L., B.T. Smith, M.A. Rahman, M. Lakim, D.M. Prawiradilaga, R.G. Moyle, and F.H. Sheldon. 2017. Evolutionary and ecological forces influencing population diversification in Bornean montane . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 113:139-149.

Chua V., B. Smith, R. Burner, M. Rahman, M. Lakim, D. Prawiradilaga, R. Moyle, F. Sheldon. 2017. Evolutionary and ecological forces influencing population diversification in Bornean montane passerines. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 113:139-149

Cooper, Jacob, Oscar Johnson, Tristan J. Davis, Ryan S. Terrill, Jared D. Wolfe, Kristin E. Brzeski, Amancio Motove Etingüe & Luke L. Powell. 2017. Notes on the distribution of the avifauna of Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, including one new country record. Malimbus 39: 1-15.

Del-Rio G, Rêgo MA, Silveira LF, Itoh A. 2017. Plant invasion: Another threat to the São Paulo Marsh Antwren (Formicivora paludicola), a species on the verge of extinction. PLOS ONE 12(12): e0189465.

Demos, TC, AS Achmadi, H Handika, Maharadatunkamsi, KC Rowe & JA Esselstyn. 2017. A new species of shrew (Soricomorpha: Crocidura) from Java, Indonesia: possible character displacement despite interspecific gene flow. Journal of Mammalogy. doi: 10.1093/jmammal/gyw183.

Dickinson, E. C. & J. V. Remsen, Jr. 2017. Case 3730 – Thamnophilus schistaceus d’Orbigny, 1838 (Aves: Thamnophilidae): proposed conservation of usage by suppression of Thamnophilus schistaceus d’Orbigny, 1835. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 74: 38-41.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 28 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Eldridge, RA, AS Achmadi, TC Giarla, KC Rowe & JA Esselstyn. 2017. Geographic isolation and elevational gradients promote diversification in an endemic shrew on Sulawesi. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.09.018.

Esselstyn, JA, CH Oliveros, MT Swanson, & BC Faircloth. 2017. Investigating difficult nodes in the placental mammal tree with expanded taxon sampling and thousands of ultraconserved elements. Genome Biology and Evolution. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evx168.

Evans, K.M., Waltz, B., Tagliacollo, V., Chakrabarty, P., Albert, J.S. 2017. Why the short face? Developmental disintegration of the neurocranium drives convergent evolution in neotropical electric fishes. Ecology and Evolution 2017, 1-21.

Faircloth, BC. Identifying conserved genomic elements and designing universal probe sets to enrich them. Methods Ecol Evol 8:1103- 1112. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12754.

Fujimoto, K., L.M. Coghill, C.A. Weier, L.-Y. Hwang, J.Y. Kim, J.A. Schneider, M.L. Metzker, and J.M. Brown. 2017. Lack of Support for Socially Connected HIV-1 Transmission among Young Adult Black MSM. Aids Research and Human Retroviruses 33:935-940.

Gilbert, GS, JO Ballesteros, CA Barrios-Rodriguez, EF Bonadies, ML Cedeño Sánchez, NJ Fossatti-Caballero, MM Trejos-Rodríguez, JM Pérez-Suñiga, KS Holub-Young, KAW Henn, JB Thompson, CG Garciá-López4, AC Romo, DC Johnston, PP Barrick, FA Jordan, S Hershcovich , Natalie Russo, Juan David Sánchez , JP Fábrega, R Lumpkin, HA McWilliams, KN Chester, AC Burgos, EB Wong, JH Diab, SA Renteria, JT Harrower, DA Hooton, TC Glenn, BC Faircloth, SP Hubbell. 2017. Use of acoustic tomography to detect and quantify wood decay in living trees. Applications in Plant Sciences 4:1600060.

Harvey, M. G., A. Aleixo, C. C. Ribas, and R. T. Brumfield. 2017. Habitat association predicts genetic diversity and population divergence in Amazonian birds. American Naturalist 190:631-648. DOI: 10.1086/693856.

Harvey, M. G., G. F. Seeholzer, B. T. Smith, D. L. Rabosky, A. M. Cuervo, and R. T. Brumfield. 2017. Positive association between population genetic differentiation and speciation rates in New World birds.PNAS 114:6328-6333. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1617397114.

Haynes, S.J., MacLeod, K.G., Huber, B.T., Warny, S., Kaufman, AJ, et al. 2017. Southeastern Tanzania depositional environments, marine and terrestrial links, and exceptional microfossil preservation in the warm Turonian. GSA Bulletin. 129 (5-6): 515-533.

Höhna, S., L.M. Coghill, G.G. Mount, R.C. Thomson, andJ.M. Brown. 2017. P3: Phylogenetic Posterior Prediction in RevBayes. Molecular Biology and Evolution. In Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx286

Hulsey, CD , J Zheng, BC Faircloth, A Meyer, ME Alfaro. Phylogenomic analysis of Lake Malawi cichlid fishes: Further evidence that the three-stage model of diversification does not fit. Mol Phylogenet Evol 114:40-48. pmid: 28579077 doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.05.027.

Krysko KL, Nuñez LP, Newman CE, Bowen BW. 2017. Phylogenetics of kingsnakes, Lampropeltis getulacomplex (Serpentes: Colubridae), in eastern North America. Journal of Heredity. 108(3): 226-238

Lim, H.C., D.F. Gawin, S.B. Shakya, M.G. Harvey, M.A. Rahman, and F.H. Sheldon. 2017. ’s east-west rain forest population structure: variable manifestations in four polytypic bird species examined using RAD-Seq and plumage analyses. Journal of Biogeography 44: 2259–2271.

Lipshutz, S. E., I. A. Overcast, M. J. Hickerson, R. T. Brumfield, and E. P. Derryberry. 2017. Behavioral response to song and genetic divergence in two subspecies of white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys). Molecular Ecology 26:3011-3027.

Longo, SJ, BC Faircloth, A Meyer, ME Westneat, ME Alfaro, PC Wainright. Phylogenomic analysis of a rapid radiation of misfit fishes (Syngnathiformes) using ultraconserved elements. Mol Phylogenet Evol 113:33-48. pmid: 28487262 doi: 10.1016/j. ympev.2017.05.002.

Ludt, W.B., Morgan, L., Bishop, J., Chakrabarty, P. (2017) A quantitative and statistical biological comparison of three semi-enclosed seas: The Red Sea, the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, and the Gulf of California Sea. Marine Biodiversity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526- 017-0740-1

Manthey, J.D., R.G. Moyle, D.F. Gawin, M.A. Rahman, M.F.S. Ramji, and F.H. Sheldon. 2017. Genomic phylogeography of the endemic Mountain Blackeye of (Chlorocharis emiliae): montane and lowland populations differ in patterns of Pleistocene diversification. Journal of Biogeography 44:2272–2283.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 29 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 McAllister, C.T., D.W. Duszynski, C.C. Austin and R.N. Fisher. 2017. Four new species of Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) fromEmoia spp. Skinks (Sauria: Scincidae), from Papua New Guinea Pacific. Journal of Parasitology, 103(1):103-110.

McMahan, C.D, Ginger, L., Cage, M.f, Chakrabarty, P., Johnston, M., Matamoros, W.A., 2017. Pleistocene to Holocene Expansion of the Black-belt Cichlid in Central America, Vieja maculicauda (Teleostei: Cichlidae). PLoS 12(5): e0178439.

McMahan, C.D., Kutz, J.f, Murray, C.M., Chakrabarty, P., Geheber, A.D., Elías, D. 2017. Objectively measuring subjectively described traits: geographic variation in body shape and caudal coloration pattern within Vieja melanura (Teleostei: Cichlidae). Biologia Tropical 65:623-631.

Moyle, R.G., J.D. Manthey, P.A. Hosner, M.A. Rahman, M. Lakim, and F.H. Sheldon. 2017. A genome-wide assessment of stages of elevational parapatry in Bornean birds reveals no introgression: implications for processes and patterns of speciation. PeerJ 5:e3335.

Newman CE, Gregory TR, Austin CC . 2016. The dynamic evolutionary history of genome size in North American woodland salamanders. Genome 60(4): 285-292

Nyffeler, M. M. R. Maxwell, & J. V. Remsen, Jr. 2017. Bird predation by praying mantises: a global perspective. Wilson J. Ornithology.

Oswald, J.A., I. Overcast, W.M. Mauck III, M.J. Andersen, and B.T. Smith. 2017. Isolation with asymmetric gene flow during the nonsynchronous divergence of dry forest birds. Molecular Ecology 26 (5): 1386-1400.

Patten, M. A., and J. V. Remsen, Jr. 2017. Complementary roles of phenotype and genotype in subspecies delimitation. Journal of Heredity 2017: 1–3.

Pie, M, P Ströher, R Belmonte-Lopes, M Bornschein, L Ribiero, BC Faircloth, JE McCormack. Phylogenetic relationships of diurnal, phytotelm-breeding Melanophryniscus (Anura: Bufonidae) based on mitogenomic data. Gene 628:194-199. pmid: 28720533. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2017.07.048.

Pie, MR, PR Ströher, MR Bornschein, LF Ribiero, BC Faircloth, JE McCormack. The mitochondrial genome of Brachycephalus brunneus (Anura: Brachycephalidae), with comments on the phylogenetic position of Brachycephalidae. Biochem Syst Ecol 71:26-31. doi: 10.1016/j.bse.2016.12.009.

Reddy, S., R.T. Kimball, A. Pandey, P. Hosner, M.J. Braun, S.J. Hackett, K.L. Han, J. Harshman, C.J. Huddleston, S. Kingston, B.D. Marks, K.J. Miglia, W.A. Moore, F.H. Sheldon, T. Yuri, C.C. Witt, E.L. Braun. 2017. Why do phylogenomic data sets yield conflicting trees? Data type influences the avian tree of life more than taxon sampling. Systematic Biology 66:857-879.

Rittmeyer, E.R. and C.C. Austin. 2017. Two new species of Crocodile Skinks (Squamata: Scincidae: Tribolonotus) from the Solomon Archipelago. Zootaxa, 4268 (1): 71-87.

Ruane, S., S.J. Richards, J.D. McVay, B. Tjaturadi, K. Krey, and C.C. Austin. 2017. Cryptic and non-Cryptic Diversity in New Guinea Ground Snakes (Genus: Stegonotus): A Description of Four New Species. Journal of Natural History doi: 00222933.2017.1391959

Ruane, S, and C.C. Austin. 2017. Phylogenomics using formalin-fixed and 100+ year old intractable natural history specimens. Molecular Ecology Resources doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.12655

Saunders, R. 2017. Archaic Shell Mounds in the American Southeast. Oxford Handbooks Online. DOI: 10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780199935413.013.75

Saunders, Rebecca. 2017. Revitalization Movements in the Prehistoric Southeast? An Example from the Irene site. In: Forging Southeastern Identities: Social Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Folklore of the Mississippian to Early Historic South, edited by Gregory A. Waselkov and Marvin T. Smith, pp. 41-61. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Schultz, E. D., C. W. Burney, R. T. Brumfield, E. M. Polo, J. Cracraft, and C. C. Ribas. 2017. Systematics and biogeography of the Automolus infuscatus complex (Aves; Furnariidae): Cryptic diversity reveals western Amazonia as the origin of a transcontinental radiation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 107:503-515. Doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.023.

Seeholzer, G. F., S. Claramunt, and R. T. Brumfield. 2017. Niche evolution and diversification in a Neotropical radiation of birds (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 71:702-715. DOI: 10.1111/evo.13177.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 30 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Shakya, S.B. and F.H. Sheldon. 2017. The phylogeny of the world’s bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) inferred using a supermatrix approach. The Ibis 159:498-509.

Shakya, S.B., J. Fuchs, J.-M. Pons, and F.H. Sheldon. 2017. Tapping the woodpecker tree for evolutionary insight. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 116:182-191.

Smith, B. T., G. F. Seeholzer, M. G. Harvey, A. M. Cuervo, and R. T. Brumfield. 2017. A latitudinal phylogeographic diversity gradient in birds. PLoS Biology 15:e2001073.

Starrett, J, S Derkarabetian, M Hedin, RW Bryson Jr., JE McCormack, BC Faircloth. High phylogenetic utility of an ultraconserved element probe set designed for Arachnida. Mol Ecol Res 17:812-823. pmid: 27768256 doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.12621.

Stiles, F. G., J. V. Remsen, Jr., & J. A. McGuire. 2017. The generic classification of the Trochilini (Aves: Trochilidae): reconciling classification with phylogeny. Zootaxa 4353: 401-424.

Stiles, F. G., V. de Q. Piacentini, & J. V. Remsen, Jr. 2017. A brief history of the generic classification of the Trochilini (Aves: Trochilidae): the chaos of the past and problems to be resolved. Zootaxa 4269: 396–412.

Tagliacollo, V.A., Duke-Sylvester, S., Matamoros, W.A., Chakrabarty, P. & Albert, J.S. 2017. Coordinated Dispersal and Pre-Isthmian Assembly of the Central American Ichthyofauna. Systematic Biology 66:183-196.

Tonetti, V., Bocalini, F., Silveira, L., & Del-Rio, G. (2018). and molecular systematics of the Yellow-green Grosbeak Caryothraustes canadensis (Passeriformes: Cardinalidae). Revista Brasileira De Ornitologia - Brazilian Journal Of Ornithology, 25(3), 176-189.

Van Dam, MH, AW Lam, K Sagata, B Gewa, R Laufa, M Blake, BC Faircloth, A Riedel. Ultraconserved elements (UCEs) resolve the phylogeny of Australasian smurf-. PLoS One 12: e0188044. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188044.

Weinell J.L. and C.C. Austin. 2017. Refugia and speciation in North American Scarlet Snakes (Cemophora). Journal of Herpetology, 51(1): 161-171.

Letter from the Director continued...

Ironically, despite what Dr. O’Neill called his “frightening” amount of knowledge and his productive research and publishing, as well as his freely spinning off research ideas that led to more than two dozen of his graduate student friends’ advanced degrees, it was not until after his death that he finally achieved doctoral level distinc- tion (Honorary Doctorate from LSU in 1993). His sense of urgency to save “what’s left of the Neotropics” left him uninterested in spending precious time doing classwork, which he said “got in the way of his field educa- tion.” In 1984, the LSU Museum of Natural Science promoted Ted to Staff Research Associate, a position he maintained for the rest of his life.

A paramount product of Parker’s passion for Neotropical birds was the monumental volume Birds of Peru (Princeton, 2007), published thirty-three years after Dr. O’Neill and he first conceived the idea. The Pref- ace to the book says “Ted was an extraordinary field biologist, gifted with remarkable talents of observation, memory, and synthesis. He quickly established himself as one of the premier ornithologists working in South America…. Directly or indirectly, he influenced several generations of ornithologists working in Peru, includ- ing all of the coauthors of this guide.”

Bird taxa named for Ted Parker, some described before his death, and some included in a 937-page festschrift tome entitled Studies in Neotropical Ornithology Honoring Ted Parker, released in 1997 (American

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 31 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Ornithologists Union Monograph No. 48), include nine bird species: Glaucidium parkeri (Subtropical Pygmy- owl), Herpsilochmus parkeri (Ash-throated Antwren), parkeri ( ), Phylloscartes parkeri (Cinnamon-faced Tyrannulet), Cranioleuca vulpecula (Parker’s Spinetail), Cercomacra parkeri (Parker’s ), Parkerthraustes humeralis (Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak), Phainoptila melanoxantha parkeri (Black- and-Yellow Silky Flycatcher), Metallura theresiae parkeri (Coppery ), as well as Erwiniana parkeri and Erwiniana nonparkeri (related species of Ted’s Arboreal Carabid ), and Furnariphilus parkeri (a species of chewing bird louse).

When his Doctor of Science degree was conferred posthumously by the President and Chancellor of LSU on December 17, 1993, the award statement read “In recognition of his acknowledged authority in the field of Neotropical birds, his uncanny ability to discover and rediscover species of birds, his unparalleled contribu- tions to the field of ornithology, and the honor and distinction he has brought to his profession and this Uni- versity.”

Giving Form to Support the Museum of Natural Science

Name (s): ______Billing Address: ______Address: ______City: ______City: ______State: ______Zip Code: ______State: ______Zip Code: ______Telephone [Day]: ______Signature: Telephone [Night]:______

Enclosed is My Gift of: All Donations are Tax Deductible ___ $50 ___ $100 ___ $200 ___ $500 ___ Other Please Mail Your Donation, Along with this Form to: LSU Museum of Natural Science Make Checks payable to: 119 Foster Hall LSU Foundation Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803

___ Mastercard ___ American Express Matching Gift Company: ______Visa ___ Other: ______Please Indicate: ______Corporate Matching Gifts: Account #: ______- ______- ______- ______Many companies match donations by employees, Exp. Date: ______their families or retirees. Please ask your human resources office for your company’s matching gift Name as it Appears on Card (please print): form. Mail the form, with this pledge card to the address provided above. ______

Thank You For Your Support.

LSU Museum of Natural Science Page 32 Museum Quarterly, February 2018 Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 733 Baton Rouge, LA Museum of Natural Science 119 Foster Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803

LSU IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ACCESS UNIVERSITY

Address Service Requested

If you would like to include items in the next issue of Museum Quarterly, please In This Issue... send information, articles and photographs to the Museum Education Office. Articles Letter from the Director...... Page 1 about research, study or any other items of Mammals in Sulawesi...... Page 2 interest are encouraged. Information may Fish in Tahiti...... Page 5 Harvard...... Page 7 be submitted as completed articles with jpeg Birds in West Texas...... Page 10 pictures in attachments, or in list form to be Yellow Rails...... Page 11 put into article. Nature Cover...... Page 15 Crude Life...... Page 19 Email your material to [email protected] or Outreach Roundup...... Page 23 News and Updates...... Page 26 mail to: Spring Seminar Schedule...... Page 27 2017 LSUMNS Pubs...... Page 28 The LSU Museum of Natural Science Giving Form...... Page 32 Education Office 119 Foster Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803

Layout design and editing by Valerie Derouen ([email protected])